THE INGRIANS OR THE INGRIAN FINNS

The self-designations are inkeriläinen and inkerin suomalainen 'the Ingrian,
the Ingrian Finn' and they call their language (inkerin) suomen kieli.
The self-designation inkerin suomalaiset began to spread in the 19th century
when under the influence of Lutheranism and scoolteaching in Finnish, a
feeling of unity developed with the Finns of Finland.

As the Ingrian may signify an inhabitant of Ingermanland in general the
more precise distinction is made between the peoples. Inkeroinen and inkerikko
signify the Izhorians in Finnish and inkeriläinen first of all the Ingrians.
The equivalent of the Izhorian in Russian is ижорец and ижора and the Ingrian
-- ингерманландский финн or, according to the region, ленинградский финн.
The designation originates from the River Inkere (Izhora) that has probably
given its name to the whole country. Other inhabitants of historic Ingermanland
are the Votes.

Habitat. Ingermanland is the descendant of ancient Ingria in the area of
the Gulf of Finland, the river basin of Neva and Lake Ladoga that became
a Swedish province (in Swedish: Ingermanland) after the battles during
the years 1570--1595 and 1610--1617. It included
Jaanilinna (Ивангород), Jaama (Ямбург), Kaprio (Копорье) and
Pähkinälinna (Орешек) county -- all
together roughly 15,000 square kilometres. The area of Ingermanland extended
200 kilometres from the River Narva in the west to the River Lava in the
east and from north to south 130 kilometres. From 1710 on, Ingermanland
was part of St. Petersburg, from 1914 of Petrograd and from 1927 of the
province of Leningrad.

Population. Initially the number of Ingrians depended on immigration but
less so later. After the peace treaties of Stolbovo and Kärde (1617, 1661),
Finnish peasants, mainly from the regions of Savo and Vyborg (Viipuri),
moved to North- and Central-Ingermanland. They caused quite a rapid increase
in population: in 1656 the percentage of Finns in the population of Ingermanlandia
was 41.1 %, in 1671 it was 56.9 % and in 1695, 73.8 %. The newly arrived Finns
for the most part assembled in 11 parishes of an existing 24.

Statistics concerning the Ingrians exist from the middle of the 19th century:

1848

76,069 (P. von Koeppen)

1865

72,273 from parish registers

(+ 13,480 in St. Petersburg)

1897

130,413 census

1917

126,240 from parish registers

(+ 15,502 in St. Petersburg)

1926

114,831 census (also the following)

1939

?

1959

23,193

1970

?

1979

16,239

native language speakers 51.9 %

1989

?

In 1848, P. von Koeppen distinguished between three groups of the Ingrians:
savakot from Savo (43,080), äyrämöiset from Äyräpää in the Vyborg region
(29,243) and suomenmaakkoiset from elsewhere in Finland (3,746). Later
these groups came under the common heading of Ingrians. Records for 1917
show that they lived in 761 Finnish villages and in 235 mixed villages.
From 1939 the censuses ceased to consider the Ingrians separately. Ingrians
also live in Archangel, Estonia, Komi, Siberia and elsewhere.

Out of 77,079 Finns living in the Soviet Union in 1919, 20,099 lived in
Karelia (native language speakers 49.8 %), 16,239 in the Leningrad region
(native language speakers 37.1 %). According to the preliminary statistics
of the census of 1989, about 67,000 Finns lived in the Soviet Union, 34.6 %
of whom have command of their mother tongue.

The Finns of the Leningrad Region live mainly in the Gatshina (Hatshina),
Lomonossov (Oranienbaum) and Vsevolozhk (Keltto) districts. The number
of Finns in the area of St. Petersburg and its outskirts has been estimated
as 7000--8000.

Anthropologically, the Ingrians belong to the Eas Baltic race. They have
dominant European characterictics. The Ingrians have generally fair hair
and blue eyes. They are somewhat shorter and more stocky in comparison
with their neighbours, the Estonians.

The language of the Ingrians is not a separate language but consists of
eastern Finnish dialects (the vernaculars of the Savo and southeastern
dialects of Ingermanland). Izhorian and Karelian are the closest kindred
languages to the Eastern Finnish dialects.

History. The name Ingria, denoting the territory of the Izhorians situated
next to Votic Watlandia, originates from the 12th century. The more recent
Ingermanland was larger, stretching from the River Narva to the shores
of Lake Ladoga. Throughout the centuries numerous wars have been fought
on this territory. Fierce battles were fought between Sweden and Russia
over Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox missionary work, which only ceased
after the Pähkinäsaari (Oreshek) and Tartu peace treaties of 1323 and 1351.
The border on the Karelia isthmus left the Votes and the Izhorians to the
Russian Orthodox side of Novgorod. After the peace treaty of Stolbovo in
1617, Ingermanland was considered a domain of Sweden. Only noblemen, monks
and burghers were allowed to travel into Russia according to the peace
treaty, but the departees had influence on the peasants.

Swedish laws were introduced in Ingermanland in order to bind the new province
more securely to its mother country. The Orthodox were obliged to attend
Lutheran services, and converts were promised money and reductions of taxes.
These offers were not very successful. The Lutheran congregations continued
to grow, mainly on account of a stream of fresh arrivals from Finland.
Ingermanland was enfeoffed to nobles and high state officials. Their servants
and workers were recruited from Finland and a great number of peasants
voluntarily resettled themselves. Ingermanland was also used by Sweden
as a place to deport people to. A record exists of a Vyborg landlord complaining
to the government that too many people leave for Ingermanland to settle
there. A separate Ingrian diocese was formed in 1641 which already had
in 1655, 58 Lutheran congregations, 36 churches and 42 parsons. A further
perspective aimed to make the Votes and the Izhorians both Finnish and
Lutheran.

In 1703 Peter the Great connected Ingermanland with the Russian Empire.
St. Petersburg, the new capital of Russia, was now founded at the place
of earlier Nyen (Nevanlinna) amid the territories of the Baltic Finns.
Ingermanland became a province to St. Petersburg and its name was used
only in ecclesiastical contexts. The Russians arrived in St. Petersburg
and its surroundings. In 1712 a decree was adopted that land should be
provided for the new Russian settlers and so Russian villages appeared.
The border on the Karelia isthmus dating back to the Pähkinäsaari peace
treaty marked the boundary between political power, religion and language
territories. At first the border between Sweden and Novgorod separated
the Izhorians from the eastern Finns and the Karelians, but the border
of Sweden and Russia after the Great Northern War separated the Ingrians
from other eastern Finns.

By the middle of the 19th century the Votes and the Izhorians had already
firmly shifted into the cultural sphere of the Russians, however, this
was not the case with the Ingrians. The oppression of the Russian language
and milieu was neutralized by Lutheranism and the proximity of their mother
country, Finland (as a grand duchy under the dominion of Russia from 1809--1917).
It took the Soviet Communist regime to exterminate the Ingrians morally
as well as physically. Initially substantial rights were promised to the
Finns of the Petrograd province, and new hopes were kindled. Educational
conditions improved, and Finnish became more widely used in cultural life;
in 1928 the Kuivaisi (Toksova) national district was formed in the Northern
Ingeria and the Leningrad region had 54 national village councils by the
year 1936.

The violence began in 1928 with compulsory collectivization. Around 18,000
people were deported from Northern Ingria to East Karelia, Central Asia
and elsewhere in order to frighten others into accepting collective farms.
A further 7,000 were deported to the Urals and to the coast of the Caspian
Sea in 1935, and 20,000 to Siberia and Central Asia in 1936. Four parishes
of Northern Ingria were totally emptied of Finns, which was a probable
factor in the tension that led to the Finnish-Russian war. All churches
and religious societies were closed by 1932 and all Ingrian cultural and
social activities were brought to a halt by 1937. The national district
of Kuivaisi (Toksova) was liquidated in 1939. By 1929, at least 13,000
Finns had been killed and 37,000 were suffering in Russia.

Ingermanland also suffered during World War II. In 1942, during the blockade
of Leningrad, 25,000--30,000 Finns were deported to Siberia. Their resettlement
to Finland was allowed by German authorities to the basis of applications.
63,227 Ingrian refugees, including the Votes and the Izhorians, had left
for Finland by October 31, 1944. Finland had to return them to the Soviet
Union after the armistice. 55,773 Ingrians arrived and were scattered to
the regions of Novgorod, Kalinin, Vologda, Sverdlovsk, etc. Some years
after the war even those children of Ingrian descent that had been adopted
by Finnish families were reclaimed by the Soviet Union.

By the year 1943, only 4,000 Finns remained in Ingermanland. All the others
had either been resettled, deported, dispersed or had fled. Only in 1956
were the Ingrians finally allowed to return to their native country. Some
25,000 Ingrians live in St. Petersburg and its administrative districts
at present. The Finnish church has functioned in Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo)
since 1977, and the Ingrian Culture Society in Estonia was permitted to
operate in 1989.

Culture. Due to Lutheranism the Ingrians' education has been good. There
are records of a school in Nyen (Nevanlinna) founded by Baron J. Skytte,
in 1632, and from 1643 every county town (Jaama, Jaanilinna, Kaprio, Pähkinälinna)
had its own school. Tests in reading skills and Sunday schools for children
already existed during the Swedish period and continued later throughout
the Russian dominion.

In 1785 the first primary school was opened in the village of Kolppana
but cultural life only gained momentum in the 19th century. The Russian
annexation of Finland (1809) and abolition of serfdom (1861) were of special
importance for Ingermanland as the liberation of peasants brought with
it radical changes. Choirs and societies were founded. To improve the educational
standards a theological seminary was opened in Kolppana in 1863 where parish
clerks and schoolmasters were trained. A newspaper Pietarin Sanomat (short-lived,
as were the several following) was begun in 1870, and calendar Pietarin
suomalainen kalenteri was published in 1871. But, as elsewhere, the last
decades of the century were also a period of russification in Ingermanland.
Regardless, the first Ingrian singing festival took place in Skuoritsa
in 1899 and by 1913 the sixth was occuring in Kolppana. In addition to
Christian education the parsons were also able to support a spirit of national
identity. Even more favourable opportunities for cultural activities, supported
by the Finnish mother country, were gained after the revolution in 1905.

In 1920 the Ingrians were promised more propitious conditions for promoting
their national culture. Vernacular education at schools continued (314
schools in 1918), and the Finnish language was used in offices, radio programmes
and elsewhere. Two daily and eight other newspapers appeared. The publishing
house Kirja managed to publish 768 books -- textbooks, disctionaries, fiction
-- in Leningrad and in Petroskoi during the period 1927--37. These activities
were kept strictly separate, however, from Finland and even aimed to counterpoise.
In 1937, just preceding the total dispersion of the Ingrians, all Finnish
schools were russified, most of the intellectuals killed and the Ingrian
cultural life completely extinguished.

As a result of the revival of national activities an information leaflet,
Inkeri, published by the Ingrian Society, began to appear in Estonia in
1989.